PICS Pastrami again

Nice job on the pastrami!

That looks real nice. Good job.

That looks beautiful, TN Q. Nice pictures, also.

That nice pile of meat reminds me why I should get a good slicer.

Enjoy the Rueben.

Do you have a recipe for your brine? and also the spice rub that you would share?

If not publically that sent private msg

I followed Deejay's recipe on this except doubled the ground pepper in the initial brine.

db

Well. After my last effort produced shredded pastrami, which tasted very good by the way, I decided to give it another try.

I had two precorned briskets weighing in at 3.5 lbs each and placed them into the fridge for 2 days with dls' pastrami rub (above) with no weights. I then threw them into the smoker cold, set at 200* with a couple chunks of hickory, and let them smoke for nearly 6 hrs until they reached an internal of 165* (never really left the plateau). Took them out, let them cool down a bit before wrapping them in foil and throwing them into the fridge again for 24 hrs with weights on them (glass pan, pannini weight and two bottles of Miracle Grow. Total weight 9 lbs).

I sliced one of them up last night straight from the fridge cold, didn't steam them, and had pastrami sandwiches for dinner last night. Very tasty and sliced very nicely as you can see.






For the other pastrami, I will steam for service after thawing it. I see Reuben's.

Now that I have the consistency down by not overcooking it (the last brisket was too thin and smoked, steamed much too long), I will try corning my own brisket next time cause the flavor on the shredded pastrami was a little more like New York pastrami than the precorned. Will do the weights and steaming again also (just not as long this time). Well, basically, the dls method. May try Juniper Berries like TN Q did with DeeJay's recipe.

This smoking thing is fun. And tasty. And if I can do it, anyone can.

quote:

Originally posted by Pags:... will try corning my own brisket next time cause the flavor on the shredded pastrami was a little more like New York pastrami than the precorned.

Pags, those slices look nice. Good to here about flavor difference from someone who had recently done both. I guess I will have to plan to do a 'real' one myself.

That's some nice looking pastrami there Pags!

You all can correct me if I'm wrong but I understand that a 'Reuben' is made with corned beef, where as a 'Rachel' is made with pastrami.

db

I guess you're right. I just heard them called pastrami Reuben. Just picked up some rye bread for our "Rachels" tonight.

Great looking pastrami, nice job Pags.

I've yet to try a Pastrami cook yet but both results look enticing. Nice job guys.

Pags - The pastrami looks very good. How were the "Rachels"?

Because of a heavy travel schedule, I haven't made pastrami for around 3 months. Things have slowed down for a couple weeks, so I have 2 briskets curing, and I'll do 1 of them this coming weekend. If I don't forget, I'll take some pictures and post them.

I will post up photos tonight, but here's the text;
Took 3 store bought corned beef flats at 3.5 lbs out of the freezer last weekend after buying them over the St. Patty's day holiday.

Thawed/Soaked/Rinsed them in cold water with the water changed out 3 times over 8 hours.

Did a rub of the coriander, ground garlic and crushed fresh black pepper along with the individual spice packs that came with the beef. I made my rub by tossing in a vacuum seal bag and rolling with a roller. The vacuum held the little seeds still in order to get crushed. I felt my coffee grinder might pick up too much of the spice odors and affect my coffee. Can't rinse the coffee grinder.

Immediately placed the flats on a single shelf in my smoker with 6 ounces of oak. The oak was from whiskey barrels and has an awesome aroma.

Set the 020 for 275 degrees and two remote meat temps into two of the three flats. In almost 4 hours the meat probes were registering 195 on the one and 198 on the other. I took them out and immediately wrapped in foil. I let them sit on the counter until they cooled down to about 120 degrees. I then vacuum sealed them. The vacuum seal bags puts 1 atmosphere of pressure on the inside contents, in this case, the flat. That is about 14 pounds per square inch all around. If anyone doubts what 14 pounds of pressure will do on something in a vacuum, here's a little experiment. Place some loose papers, perhaps a 2 inch stack of bills or payment statements for example, inside a vacuum bag. Vacuum and seal it. You will now have something under so much pressure it will be like a board. The pressure compresses that 2 inch stack down to less than 1/2 an inch.

Anyway, after a few days in the fridge, I removed one, sliced it thin and fixed up some sandwiches. Great stuff.

Another I took and steamed whole in smoker;
1 ceramic pan with water, a grate that was placed in the pan of water but would keep the flat out of it, then the flat. I turned the smoker up to 300 degrees with no wood. When the meat got to 160 I pulled it, let it rest and then sliced it. I preferred this over the non-steamed version.

I deliberately smoked the flat in this manner based on two things;
1. Pags report that low and slow will result in a pulled-like product
2. A thread I read somewhere on here that said to put the heat to a pastrami and cook it fast so that it will stay firm.

Well, these flats are firm! They are as solid as a brick yet are not at all dried out. I think the fast cooking lead to less drying time allowed. I was a bit concerned with the final smoke meat temperature of 195 + but it wasn't a problem. I think using a fast cook method along with a steam afterward resulted in a solid and moist product.

Photos will be posted later! Thanks to everyone's input and I hope mine contributes something useful.

Glad it turned out so well. Good stuff.

Just for clarification, I still cooked the product pictured above (2nd attempt) low and slow. I just didn't overcook it and over steam it like my first attempt which produced the shredded pastrami. Low and slow and shorter times produced much better consistency.

On my first attempt I smoked for 8 hrs leaving the meat in the plateau for several hrs then steamed for 4 hrs (like I said it was a very thin flat). On my second attempt I removed the meat from the smoker once it hit 162* after 5 hrs. Had the first of the two pastrami's without steaming (pictured above). Will steam the 2nd one for no more than a couple hrs once it's defrosted (FoodSaver bag). I'm pretty sure it will turn out fine and slice up nicely. If not, I'll post.

As promised, here are photos;

This is a shot of a vacuum sealed pastrami. Notice the size. A 3 1/2 pound corned beef flat shrinks!



Out of the bag and onto a plate. Ready to get slicing.


I sliced some thick, on the plate, and I sliced some really deli thin, on the slicer. I wanted to try a thin slice for sandwiches that I can make and take to work. The thicker slices will be dinner for Rachels.